Currently, municipalities have a great number of locations on municipal streets where parking is either prohibited or restricted permanently and/or to particular times. For example, parking of vehicles will be prohibited in bus stop zones, red or yellow zones and in the vicinity of fire hydrants. On some busy streets, parking will be prohibited during rush hours but not otherwise. Similarly in private parking lots, parking spots may be reserved for specific individuals only or for customers of specific businesses. In addition, parking time limits may be enforced for these customers to prevent abuse and create turnover. To date there has been no automated way to enforce violations of these parking regulations. In order to enforce municipal parking violations, parking by-law enforcement officers patrol the streets on foot or in vehicles and issue parking tickets and summon tow truck operators. Similarly for private parking lots, operators physically monitor use of their parking spaces and may also issue private parking tickets and summon tow truck operators to tow vehicles or alternatively immobilize the vehicles. Typically, comparatively few enforcement officers are charged with responsibility for a large area and number of parking violators, so enforcement is random and uneven.
In-ground vehicle sensors are widely used to control stoplights and thereby assist in more efficient vehicular traffic. An example of such as in-ground sensor is the GROUND-HOG™ manufactured by Nu-metrics which is a wireless, self-contained, in-ground traffic monitor which transmits a wireless signal upon detection of a vehicle. The use of in-ground sensors in connection with an improved parking meter system is disclosed in the present inventor's International application no. PCT/CA206/001372 filed Aug. 21, 2006 which is pending and which is incorporated herein by reference. However the benefits of in-ground sensors have not to date been fully taken advantage of for vehicle parking enforcement where pay parking is not offered. In addition, the benefits of in-ground sensors have not to date been fully taken advantage of for the assistance of traffic management.